Lillo Brancato Jr.

[Brian in Mesa]

Shooting Suspect Was Once a Rising Star
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 10, 2005

A dozen years ago, Lillo Brancato Jr. was going to be a star.

The unknown actor earned critical acclaim opposite his idol, Robert De Niro, in the 1993 movie "A Bronx Tale." He played the Oscar winner's son in the story of a teen torn between two role models — a local mobster and his dad — in a heavily Italian Bronx neighborhood.

From there, Brancato went on to appear in more than a dozen films, including "Renaissance Man," "Crimson Tide," "Enemy of the State" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash." He later had a recurring role on "The Sopranos," where his character was eventually executed by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano in one of the series' more memorable departures.

But on Saturday, the actor was far from the bright lights and red carpets of Hollywood. Instead, police said, he was breaking into a vacant house with another man when a gunfight erupted. An off-duty police officer who responded was killed, and Brancato, who police said was unarmed, was in critical condition after being shot twice.

Brancato was just 16 when De Niro launched a search for nonprofessionals to appear in his 1993 directorial debut, the film version of Chazz Palminteri's play "A Bronx Tale." Brancato was discovered by a casting director strolling along a New York beach; he came out of the water and wowed him with impressions of De Niro and Joe Pesci.

In a New York Times profile, Brancato was described as "friendly, earnest, sweet-tempered, a fast talker, a salesman, the kind of goofy tough guy who once upon a time used to hang out on a city street corner."

Brancato, now 29, was born in Bogota, Colombia, and adopted when he was 4 months old. He was raised in Yonkers and still lived in the city just north of the Bronx.

In 1999-2000, he appeared in a half-dozen episodes of "The Sopranos" as the dim-witted aspiring mobster Matt Bevilacqua. In one episode, his character worked a high-stakes card game where the players included Frank Sinatra Jr.

Brancato also starred in the short-lived TV mob show "Falcone" and guest-starred in a 2002 episode of "NYPD Blue."

His most recent appearance in the headlines came in June, when Brancato was arrested by Yonkers police who discovered four bags of heroin during a traffic stop.

-----------------------------------------------

Wow. Sad turn of events.

He was really good in A Bronx Tale.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

'Bronx Tale' Star Has Sad Ending
Thursday December 15, 2005

In the dozen years between that sunny summer afternoon at Jones Beach and a frigid winter morning in the Bronx, life went terribly wrong for Lillo Brancato Jr.

It was in July 1993 that the handsome teen strolled out of the Atlantic Ocean and into a Hollywood career. A casting director on the beach was blown away by the kid's dead-on impressions of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. The young unknown was hired to star opposite his idol, De Niro, in the movie "A Bronx Tale."

Last weekend, Brancato, now a 29-year-old with a serious drug habit, got caught in a burglary attempt with another man and ended up in a gun battle that left a police officer dead, authorities say. The actor is facing murder charges.

"Actor's Bronx Tale Goes Bad," read one tabloid headline.

"This is deeply disturbing news, a tragedy beyond comprehension," De Niro said in a statement.

"A Bronx Tale" featured Brancato as De Niro's son in a role that would have remarkable real-life parallels years later: Brancato played a young man torn between two worlds his father's honest, hardworking life as a bus driver, and the high life led by a glamorous neighborhood mobster. The physical resemblance between De Niro and Brancato alone was enough to make their on-screen relationship plausible.

Back then, the charismatic Brancato was described in a New York Times profile as "friendly, earnest, sweet-tempered." He entertained De Niro by imitating Al Pacino.

Brancato's career never exploded after his film debut, but work was steady: He appeared in more than a dozen films and several TV roles, most notably in "The Sopranos," starring as a bumbling, wannabe mobster who gets whacked by Tony Soprano.

In the past year, though, the drama in Brancato's life was all offstage. He was arrested twice on drug charges: for heroin possession in Yonkers, N.Y., and for being under the influence of a narcotic in Hermosa Beach, Calif., authorities said. He entered a substance abuse program.

Neighbors described loud fights with his on-and-off girlfriend, while his appearance suffered. His frame was scrawny, his skin tinged yellow.

If Brancato was an actor who played some bad guys, his alleged partner in the break-in and shootout last weekend was the real thing. Steven Armento, 48, was a low-level Genovese crime family associate until he was banished for drug addiction, authorities said.

"A lot of the people Lillo was hanging out with didn't have his best interest at heart," said Brancato's manger, Garianno Lorenzo. "They were out to take advantage of him. Lillo only did harm to himself, with drugs. Never to someone else."

According to authorities, the actor and the older man were drinking together at the Crazy Horse Cabaret strip club in the Bronx before deciding early Saturday to break into a basement apartment nearby and steal some Valium. Armento carried a .357 Smith & Wesson handgun; Brancato was not armed, police said.

Investigators believe Armento tried to enter the apartment through a broken window but couldn't fit. The skinnier Brancato could, but he emerged empty-handed.

The sound of shattering glass awoke off-duty Officer Daniel Enchautegui, who lived in the neighborhood. He grabbed his badge and gun and confronted the men in an alley. A fierce gun battle erupted, with Armento firing first, police said.

The officer was hit in the chest. Though fatally wounded, he managed to empty his eight-shot pistol, hitting Armento six times and Brancato twice, police said. Backup officers caught a bloodied Brancato trying to get into his car. Armento had collapsed nearby.

Both men remain hospitalized. Armento was charged with first-degree murder, which carries life without parole. Brancato was accused of second-degree murder, punishable by 25 years to life. He was ordered held without bail Thursday, despite his lawyer's argument that it was Armento who fired the fatal shot.

"He's in physical pain. He's in emotional pain," defense attorney Mel Sachs said of Brancato outside the hospital. "He recognizes the tragedy here, but he's not responsible for it."

Two days before the shooting, Brancato was ticketed for disorderly conduct after his ex-girlfriend's twin sister summoned police. When officers arrived, Brancato was sitting in the middle of the street. "Don't you know who I am?!" he screamed.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Too bad, he was great on Sopranos.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Actor implicated in cop shooting: I'm sorry

ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2005

The actor accused in the slaying of an off-duty Bronx police officer says in a jailhouse interview that he wept while reading a newspaper story about the dead man's funeral.

"When I saw the picture of his father, it brought tears to my eyes because he looked like one of those old-fashioned men -- kind of like my father," Lillo Brancato Jr. told the New York Post in Thursday editions. "I also thought that could have been my father going to my funeral."

Brancato, 29, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Daniel Enchautegui, who was fatally wounded in a Dec. 10 gunfight. Enchautegui was shot after he heard Brancato and another man, Steven Aremento, breaking into a basement apartment in the Bronx, authorities said.

Brancato make his acting debut opposite Robert De Niro in the film "A Bronx Tale," and appeared in a recurring role as a mob wannabe on "The Sopranos."

Brancato insisted that he was unaware Armento was carrying a weapon when they left a Bronx strip club to break into the apartment and steal prescription drugs. Authorities identified Armento, 48, as the gunman in the slaying.

"If I would have known, I wouldn't have allowed him in my car," Brancato said. "Imagine, we get pulled over and I get caught with an armed felon in my car. Since I've been in the movies, it would have instantly drawn attention."

According to Brancato, Armento plans to acknowledge that the actor knew nothing about the gun. Brancato said he might take the witness stand at trial to tell the jury "how horrible I feel about my stupidity."

Brancato made the sign of the cross every time he mentioned Enchautegui's name during the 40-minute interview at Rikers Island. And he offered an apology to the officer's family.

"If I had the chance, I would want to meet his family and look them in the face and tell then how sorry I feel about what happened," Brancato said.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

The family's response...

Cop's kin pan actor
By NICOLE BODE
and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
December 30th, 2005

Three weeks after Officer Daniel Enchautegui was gunned down, the hero cop's father can find nothing but hatred in his heart for the "Sopranos" actor accused in the crime.

"I'd like to put him in the electric chair and get permission to press the button myself," Pedro Enchautegui said yesterday of Lillo Brancato.

Brancato, 29, has been peddling a sob story about the Dec. 10 shooting, claiming he didn't know his junkie pal Steven Armento, 48, had a gun when they allegedly broke into an apartment next to Daniel Enchautegui's Bronx home.

But the disgraced actor's protests - a bald attempt to get a murder charge reduced - drew nothing but contempt in the Enchautegui household, where Christmas was a joyless event this year.

"I want them both to have the same charges," the cop's father said of Brancato and Armento, whom authorities say were hoping to steal prescription drugs when Enchautegui interrupted the burglary.

Even after being mortally wounded, the hero cop managed to fire eight shots, hitting Brancato twice and Armento six times.

The slain officer's mom, Maria, said that with her son gone and buried, the time has passed for lame excuses from the alleged killers.

"The only thing that guy wants is to get out of it," she said of the actor-turned-jailbird. "It's too late for that."

Officers from the 40th Precinct in the Bronx, where Enchautegui was assigned, have rallied around the grieving couple.

They attended Christmas Mass with the family in the Bronx, then gathered at the fallen officer's sister's home for dinner that night.

"It was a very sad Christmas," said the sister, Yolanda Rosa Nazario, 41, of Ozone Park, Queens.

"It was too close to the holiday without him. I brought my parents to Queens so they wouldn't have to suffer alone."

Just yesterday, two cops stopped by Pedro and Maria Enchautegui's house in the West Farms section of the Bronx.

"We know this is a tough time for them," said Officer Charles Spruill. "We gotta make sure the spiritual support is taken care of. We gotta make sure the family gets as much prayer as possible."

Maria Enchautegui appreciates the effort, but it's done little to repair the gaping hole in her life - one that she says Brancato's mother cannot imagine.

"I just want my son back," she said. "He was the light of my life, the light of my soul. I don't think the other mother cries like me."

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Actor and co-defendant arraigned in cop slaying

BY LUIS PEREZ
STAFF WRITER

January 10, 2006

In a dramatic courthouse scene that included hundreds of city cops roaring for the death penalty and the teary-eyed mother of a fallen "Bronx Tale" actor pleading for mercy, the two alleged robbers accused of shooting down a young Bronx patrolman last month were arraigned on murder charges Monday.

Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, and Steven Armento, 48, both of Yonkers, were each charged with two counts of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Armento, the alleged triggerman, was also charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Both pleaded not guilty before Bronx Supreme Court Judge John Collins.

Armento, dressed in a faded pink polo shirt, sweat pants and white sneakers, mumbled his response twice to the judge, who said he could not hear the defendant in the stone-silent courtroom. Armento repeatedly looked at the table or floor in front of him.

By contrast, Brancato, the actor, who wore a black blazer over a white T-shirt and black slacks, said "Not guilty, your honor," and peered around the chestnut-colored courtroom, which was full to capacity.

On the first row sat the family of police officer Daniel Enchautegui, who prosecutors said was fatally shot when he came out of his home to intercept two men breaking into a neighbor's apartment Dec. 10.

Prosecutors said Armento fired one fatal shot, killing the 40th Precint cop, a three-year-veteran who was 28. Police officials have said that both men confessed to breaking into the house to steal Valium.

Although he was taken away after the arraignment in handcuffs, Brancato, who once played Robert De Niro's son in the classic film "A Bronx Tale," swirled in a highly emotional storm on the sidewalk outside the courthouse.

His attorney, Mel Sachs, said he would move to get Brancato his own trial because he is not guilty of murder.

"Lillo Brancato did not shoot the police officer. ... He didn't know that the person he was with had a gun," Sachs said.

Crying on a relative's shoulders, Domenica Brancato, the actor's mother, said: "He's not a killer. He's a good person. He's the best."

"My heart is in pieces," she added.

"I'm very sorry for the police officer," Brancato's father, Lillo Brancato Sr., said. "I'm very sorry for my son."

Around the corner, hundreds of police officers applauded a union official's call for the death penalty for both men, who remain jailed at Rikers Island.

"His choice was to stand with that killer. He's equally as guilty," Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said of Brancato. "Now it's time to make sure there's justice and he never, ever sees the light of day."